Dota 2 may be one of the most well-known esports games out there, but it’s had a distinct lack of UK talent over the years.
So UK Dota 2 fans may find this news positive in particular – UK esporgs org Into The Breach have signed a roster in the DreamLeague Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) featuring two UK players: Azdantick and Tanner.
The team was known as Creepwave and will now be playing in the Season 15 DPC EU Lower Division under the Into The Breach banner.
As well as the UK players Adzantick and Tanner, the side also includes Greek player thugitoO, Kazakhstan’s Malik and Fishman from Belarus.
Tanner is also known as Meep, who previously attended multiple Insomnia and epic.LAN events in the UK, and has also played for Ninjas in Pyjamas, while Adzantick has won the ESL Premiership twice. They are the only UK players in the DPC.
Sam Cook, Into The Breach founder, told Esports News UK: “Picking up this roster is huge for us – as we’re built around supporting UK Dota from a grassroots level and shining a light on the mass of potential that has been untapped until now.
“People don’t think of the UK when they think of Dota, but we have a large playerbase in Europe and ESL Birmingham 2019 was the most popular ESL One Dota 2 event in history. We’re hoping that through this roster UK players finally have some representation, and a team that can do them proud.
“We’ve got two UK players, Adzantick and Tanner, who are the highest ranked UK players in Dota respectively. Our captain Fishman is from Belarus and has great experience, playing with Natus Vincere’s Dendi and Nemiga. We’ve then got Malik – top 10 offlaner from Kazakhstan – and ThuG, who is well-known for his run in the Boston Major, coming second to OG and scoring $500,000.
“Our captain was especially keen to play in a UK org as he’s a huge Tottenham fan (no judgement) and we’ll make sure he gets to a game.”
“People don’t think of the UK when they think of Dota, but we have a large playerbase in Europe. We’re hoping that through this roster, UK players finally have some representation, and a team that can do them proud.”
Sam said Into The Breach’s aims are to reach top four to build momentum for the upcoming The International (TI) qualifiers, to increase their community impact, charity engagement and keep growing UK Dota ‘from a grassroots and now professional basis’.
The org will be working with this roster over the next six months, with the view to working with them on a longer-term basis. A bootcamp will also be on the agenda this summer in the run up to TI10.
“Flying the UK flag at TI would be incredible,” Sam added. “We shall be expanding into CSGO next, which we know will be a big challenge! Any interested parties, feel free to hit us up.”
Earlier this year, UK-based org Tundra moved into Dota 2 after signing a DreamLeague team.
While the UK has had a lack of UK Dota 2 players at the top level, it has fielded a raft of casters, hosts and more, including TeaGuvnor, who recently stepped down from Hellbear Smashers as coach to focus on working as an analyst for ESL One and DreamLeague.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
